Melinda: A Bug from the Past
by Elizah Renehan
Summary: A look into life at the Halliwell Manor years later..my first fanfiction. I do not own any of the characters..Except that I developed the personality of characters of the children that were only mentioned on the episodes. Please review!
1. Chapter 1

Piper's and Leo's Kids

Wyatt 20

Chris 18

Melinda 15 (Mel)

Phoebe's and Coop's Kids

Prudence Johanna (PJ) 14

Pamela 12

Peyton 10

Paige's and Henry's Kids

Tamora 5

Kathryn (Kat) 5

Henry 3

The morning had been sunny, warm and bright, but the evening was cold and windy and drops of icy rain had begun falling from the sky. Teenage Melinda Halliwell opened the door the manor, and closed it behind her. She stopped in the door way, and sneezed several times. She sniffed loudly and wiped her nose—red from the cold—on the edge of sleeve. Piper looked up from her spot on the couch where she sat in her warm pajamas reading a book.

"Bless you, sweetheart." She said, putting down her book and holding her arms out for her daughter to sit beside her on the couch. Happily, Melinda dropped her backpack on the floor and snuggled up beside her mother. "How was your day?" Piper asked.

"It was pretty good. School was kind of long. But, Anna brought home two A papers today. Her mom was so happy. She said I'm the best tutor they've ever had!"

"I'm so proud of you, sweetie." Piper said, kissing her daughter on the temple.

"Thank,m…" Melinda trailed off. Her face wrinkled up and sneezed again. "Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!" Piper frowned. "Are you getting sick, baby?" She asked, surveying Melinda's complexion. Her cheeks were tinged bright red, and her eyes were watery.

Melinda hesitated. She and her Aunt Paige were orbing to New York that weekend to do some shopping—if Piper thought Melinda was sick, she would make her stay home. Luckily, she was saved from having to answer as her Aunt Phoebe walked through the door with her arms full of groceries. Melinda and Piper rose from the couch and grabbed some bags from Phoebe. The trio walked through the kitchen and begun to put groceries away as Phoebe recounted her experience with a Bay Mirror fan who was a little _too _wrapped up in Phoebe's column. "She wanted me to sign her back." Phoebe rolled her eyes. "Not even because we save the world from evil on a weekly basis, but because she loved my advice about breastfeeding in public." Melinda and Piper laughed.

As Piper began a pot of soup for dinner, Phoebe pulled a jar of mayonnaise out of the last grocery bag and put it in the refrigerator. Then she turned to Melinda, "So…have you talked to James anymore?" She asked, referring to the boy Melinda had been crushing on since, like, middle school. Melinda rolled her eyes.

"Aunt Phoebe, you know I don't have time for boys right now." Melinda said, absent mindedly wiping her running nose on her sleeve.

From the stove, Piper threw her daughter an approving nod, but Phoebe's eyes grew wide, "Are you sure we're related?" She asked wrinkling her nose in teasing distaste.

"Yes, Aunt Phoebe. I'm sure. And I have the kick-ass karate skills to prove it."

"Oh yeah, that's right!" Phoebe said taking her niece's face in both of her hands and planting a kiss on her forehead. As she let go, the laughter in Phoebe's eyes turned to concern. She put the back of her hand against Melinda's forehead. "You're so hot, Mel. Piper, does she feel warm to you?" Piper whirled around to look at her daughter.

"Oh yeah, I forgot." Said Piper laying the large wooden spoon she had been stirring with down. "She's been awfully sneezy and stuffy sounding since she got home."

Piper wiped her hands on her apron before placing the back of her hand against Melinda's forehead. "I think your Aunt Phoebe is right. You have a little fever. How do you feel?"

Melinda shrugged. "Just a little tired." Piper raised one eyebrow at her daughter, and Melinda knew her mom knew she wasn't been entirely truthful. "And a sore throat and a pretty nasty headache." She continued with a tone of voice, shrug of the shoulders and a quick nod of the head that reminded Piper forcibly of Paige.

"Alright honey." said Piper running one hand down the length of Melinda's hair. "Go to the upstairs bathroom, and bring me the thermometer."

Melinda turned on heel to do as her mom asked, and Piper turned to Phoebe, "Guess we need to call Paige and tell her to keep Henry and the twins away from all of us. I don't want her little ones to get whatever Mel has."

"I'll go tell her."

The sisters and all their families lived in the manor, sort of. As the families had grown bigger, each sister now being married, and each with three kids of their own, the house quickly became over crowded. However, it seemed impossible to split up the family. The sisters need to be together. So the elders gave them a very special magical gift. They expanded the manor to three times its size—from the inside only so that there were actually three complete manors-one on top of the other-but it looked normal on the outside. No one knew this except family and close friends. The front door was magically altered so that each family member could enter his or her own manor without walking through someone else's, but they could visit each other's manor if they wanted.

Phoebe just walked into the foyer with Paige in mind, and walked back out into Paige's living room. It was, of course, an exact replica of the living room she had just left only with Paige's artistic flair. The couches were blue and orange and the ceiling was adorned with a dozen cylinder hanging lamps of various sizes. A huge tropical fish tank took up a good part on one wall, and a shelf with strange pottery—handmade by Paige and her children—took up another. Tamara and Kat had the lid off the fish were rolling a ball back and forth across the water. They stopped and looked guiltily up at their Aunt Phoebe. Tamora quickly grabbed the ball and tried to hide it behind her back.

"Hey girls, can I have kisses?" Phoebe asked. Kat started to run towards her aunt, but Tamora, who thought that the two minutes that separated the twins put her charge, grabbed her by the arm. "Wait! Wait! Wait! Before we give you kisses, are you gonna rat us out?" She put both her hands on her hips and waited for Phoebe's reply. Phoebe looked from twin to twin with a sly smile. "Tell you what, we'll just put this lid back on this tank and no harm done, how about that?" She bent over and put the lid carefully back on the tank and tossed the wet ball into the toy box underneath an orange coffee table. The girls giggled and she lowered herself to her knees so she was on eye level with her youngest nieces, and rewarded her with several kisses. "Now, where's your mommy?"

"She's giving Henry a bath." reported Tamora.

"Okay, you two play something that won't get you in trouble, and I'm going to go talk to your mommy. Okay?"

"Okay." Said the twins in unison and they turned and began pulling some Barbie dolls from inside the toy chest.

Phoebe knocked on the bathroom door before walking in to find a slightly damp Paige bending over the bathtub. "Aunt BeeBee!" screamed Henry shrilly raising his arms into the air and splashing the bathroom with even more water.

"Henry, can we please try to leave some of the water _in _the tub." said Paige with more amusement than frustration."What's up, chickadee." She said to Phoebe, flipping down the toilet lid and gesturing for her sister to take a seat and positioning herself on the bathtub ledge.

"Piper wanted me to tell you guys to steer clear of her place for a few days. Mel's got a fever, and she figured you didn't want to share."

"Are you kidding me?The twins already missed a week of school last month for chicken pox. Ugh! What's wrong with Melinda? Is she okay?"

"I think she probably just has a cold. I hope so anyway."

"Yeah, me too. Are your girls still on the annual father daughter trip with Coop."

"Oh yes, until Monday. They are having a blast. I can hardly stand the quiet though. I went grocery shopping for Piper, I was so bored." She laughed at her own inability to enjoy the peace and quiet she always complained about never having.

Henry was apparently growing bored of the grown up conversation because he chose this moment to use his rubber ducky to spray both sisters with a stream of water.

"All right, Henry." Paige said, grabbing a hooded towel from the shelf above Phoebe's head. "I think you've had enough bath time."

"Well, I'll leave you to it. I'm going back down to help Piper and check on Melinda."

"Alright. Let me know what's up with her, and if y'all need anything down there." She lifted Henry out of the tub and begun to dry him off.

"I will." said Phoebe. "Love ya."

"Love you too."

"Love oo, Aunt Beebee" said Henry, and Phoebe beamed.

When Phoebe returned to Piper's living room, Melinda was lying on the couch watching a documentary about dreams. Melinda sat up slightly when she saw her aunt and allowed Phoebe to slide onto the couch, before laying back down with her head in Phoebe's lap. Phoebe stroked Melinda's long hair and thought about how beautiful her niece was. She looked a lot like Piper with just a light dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks, high cheeks bones and perfectly arched brows. She had her daddy's soft full lips, and his one sided smile. But her eyes were neither Piper's nor Leo's. From the moment of her birth everyone realized that looking into Melinda's eyes—sparkling bluish green—was just like looking into Prue's eyes. And as time went on, it became more and more true. Phoebe remembered well the first time she had ever seen Melinda lose her temper. She had only been about two years old at the time and Wyatt was taunting her once again as he had been doing the entire day. Phoebe saw the child's eyes flash violently green and knew Wyatt was in for it. She was right too—Melinda whacked him hard across the face with a toy radio, leaving a bruise that took a week to heal. Prue's eyes had flashed green like that when she was angry. At the moment Melinda's eyes were rimmed more heavily with blue than was usual which always happened when she ran a fever—just like Prue. Soon Melinda had drifted off to sleep, lulled into dreamland by her aunt's soft hands in her hair.

When Piper had finished dinner, she came and sat down on the loveseat across from Phoebe and Melinda. "Mel's going to be so disappointed if she can't go with Paige to New York this weekend. She's been looking forward to it for weeks." She said looking at her sleeping daughter with sympathetic eyes.

"Yeah, she will be." Phoebe untangled her fingers from Melinda's hair and felt her forehead again. "How high is her fever?"

"It was 101.5 when I checked it. I gave her some Tylenol, so it should be coming down now. How are Paige and the kids doing?

"They're fine. The girls are being mischievous as usual, and Henry turned the bathroom into a lake…as usual."

Piper laughed and rolled her eyes, "I miss those days sometimes; with both Wyatt and Chris in University on different sides of the country, it gets awfully quiet here. Do you remember when Melinda though the walls were her personal art easel? It took me years to get all the crayon, marker, pen, paint and glitter of the walls."

"She's growing up so fast, isn't she? She's a good kid. I keep hoping PJ will learn some responsibility from her."

"I wish Melinda would learn some relaxation skills from PJ! She worries too much for a fifteen year old, her anxiety levels are turning _my _hair gray."

Melinda coughed and shifted uncomfortably in her sleep. Phoebe put her hand on Melinda's shoulder to keep her from falling off the couch.

"I guess we should wake her up and try to get her to eat something." said Piper.

Phoebe nodded and shook her niece gently, "Mel, Mel, wake up honey."Melinda moaned softly and coughed again. "Come on, honey" Phoebe urged. "You'll feel better when you've had some of your mom's soup." Melinda opened her eyes, her head still in Phoebe's lap, and looked into her aunt's chocolate brown eyes, eyes she often looked into for comfort.

"Hi, Aunt Phoebe." She mumbled sleepily.

Phoebe smiled down at her. "Hi, honey. Are you ready for something to eat?"

"I made chicken noodle soup." said Piper from the loveseat.

"That sounds great, Mom." She sat up and smiled at her mom and Piper tousled her daughter's already disheveled hair as she passed on her way to the kitchen. Piper fixed three bowls of soup and placed them on a large tray along with three cokes. She carried the tray into the living room and put it on the coffee table.

The family sat around enjoying each other's company. If demon fighting had taught them anything it was to love each other and never take a single moment if granted. They talked and laughed until sickness got the best of Melinda and she fell asleep against Piper's shoulder. Piper untangled herself from underneath Melinda and tried to pick her up, but was quite unsuccessful. Phoebe looked at Piper and lifted her eyes heavenward.

Piper took the hint. "Leo" she called into the air. Within several seconds, there was a swirl of blue and white light and Leo appeared. "Hey, Honey." Piper said, kissing her husband on the cheek. "Sorry to bother you at work, but Melinda's sick and I hoping you could take her to her room for me. This is the second time she's fallen asleep on the couch and I don't want to wake her again if I can help it."

Leo glanced at his sleeping daughter; his baby girl, his pride and joy. "What's wrong with her?" he asked voice full of concern.

"Nothing serious, don't worry. Just take her upstairs and you can go back to work. I'll take care of her."

"Okay" said Leo. He picked his daughter up easily, cradling her in his arms like a very large baby. He carried her up the stairs instead of orbing, simply so he could spend a few more seconds with his daughter.

When he came back downstairs, Piper and Phoebe were in the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner.

"Call me if she gets worse, or if you need anything." He looked into Piper's eyes and held her close. "I love you."

"I love you."

Leo orbed out.


	2. Chapter 2

As Piper and Phoebe put away the last of the dishes, Paige walked into the kitchen. She was wearing fuzzy blue pajama bottoms and a black tank top. She looked tired, but happy.

"Hey, missy Paige." said Piper from the sink.

"Hey. I just got the kids to sleep, so I thought I'd come visit my two favorite sisters, and check on my favorite fifteen year old niece."

"You're not going to be able to say that after next month, you know." said Phoebe with a smirk. PJ and Melinda were only three months apart so for most of the year, they were the same age.

"I know, I know. But this is this month."

"Melinda's alright. She's upstairs sleeping; she fell asleep on the couch a little while ago, and Leo came home for a minute and took her upstairs."

"Ugh. She must not be feeling good if she's asleep already. It's only 9:00. So, is it a no go for New York this weekend?"

"I hope not, but it's not looking so good."

Paige sighed. "She needs to have some fun. She spends half her life studying and the other half on that tutoring job. Not that I'm not proud to have such a smart, hardworking niece, but I'd like to see her just relaxing for a while."

"I was just telling Phoebe that." agreed Piper. "How are things at work? Didn't you go to court with the Milstead case today." After Billie took over a portion of their witch duties, Paige had returned to her job and been promoted to social worker.

"Yeah, I did. It has been continued into next week. I can't give details but, I sure don't know what other evidence he needs. Those parents shouldn't just loose custody of their kids, they should be locked up." Paige shook her head in frustration. "Remind me why we can't vanquish mortals again."

"Because they don't clean up after themselves" said Phoebe with a slight sigh. Then, catching a glimpse of the her sister's face, lined with anger and concern for the children she was supposed to protect, "Oh baby, you don't need the power of three to save those kids, you just need what's in here." She said tapping Paige's chest. "You'll keep fighting until every one of them is in a safe home."

Piper bent over Paige and wrapped her in a hug from behind, "You're not just a super witch Paige, you're a super social worker, and that's a million times more important."

Paige giggled and then yawned loudly, as Piper released her.

"And much more exhausting," said Phoebe. "To bed with you, missy Paige." She playfully swatted Paige with the dishrag she had been drying dishes with.

"Hey!" I'm going, I'm going" She said, laughing. "Night guys."

"Good night, Missy Paige." Piper said.

"Love you," said Phoebe with smirk.

Phoebe and Piper were alone in the kitchen again.

"Well, I'm going to check on Mel, and then I'm off to bed too. I'm going to need my energy to deal with a sick teenager all day tomorrow."

Phoebe rose from the table, "I'll come down in the morning to help out. Night. Love you"

"Love you too, baby girl."

Piper had only been asleep for about an hour when she heard someone walk into her room, she rolled over and saw Melinda's thin frame in the dark. "You okay, honey?" She asked.

"Yeah, is dad going to be home tonight?"

"No, he's going to be 'up there' all week. He's on guard duty. "

"Oh, um…well. Can I sleep with you then?"

"Um-hm." Said Piper sleepily, shifting slightly to make room for her daughter.

Melinda crawled into the bed next to her mother and pressed her face close to her mother's body, breathing in her scent and taking comfort from it. Melinda had always loved the way her mother smelled, like vanilla and spices.

Piper felt the heat radiating of Melinda's body, "That fever reducer must have worn off, baby." Piper said, trying to muster up the energy to get out of her bed again. "You're burning up. I'll get you some more."

"I'm fine, mom. Fevers help fight infection."

Piper knew her daughter was right, but she didn't want Melinda to be miserable. "Okay," she said, "But if you feel too bad, take some more Tylenol, okay?"

"Okay."

Piper closed her eyes and fell asleep.

The next morning, Piper woke up was woken up by the garbage truck. She rolled over and found the other side of the bed cold. She glanced at the alarm clock. It was 6:30 in the morning.

She could hear Melinda coughing from the floor below. Piper rolled out of the bed, and went downstairs. She was dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved purple t-shirt, her hair was in low pigtails. She was sitting in a chair at kitchen table with her head resting sideways against the table so she could see as she frantically scribbled away in her French notebook. "What are you doing up? Go back to bed, baby" said Piper sternly.

"But mom, I have to get this French done before school!"

"You're not going to school."

"Mom, you know I have to go. I'll miss too much, plus I have a math test today."

"You're not going to do as well on the test anyway if you're not feeling good."

"I feel fine." Melinda trying to disguise a cough and failing miserably.

Piper walked over to her daughter and tried to feel her forehead, but Melinda pulled away and covered her face with her arms. Instead, Piper shut the book. "Bed, now. I'll be up there in a minute to check on you."

"You're so unfair! You think I'm still two years old. I don't need you to take care of me anymore!" With that Melinda stormed out of the room and back up the stairs.

Piper looked at the ceiling with perplexedly. Chris and Wyatt yelled at her for making them go to school with even the slightest case of the sniffles and this one would go if she had bubonic plague. Still shaking her head, Piper filled the kettle with water for tea.

Upstairs Melinda was panicking slightly. She felt horrible, but she had to keep her mom from taking her to the doctor. She listened to see if her mom was coming up the stairs. She couldn't hear anything so she grabbed her cell phone and locked herself in the bathroom. She dialed Wyatt's number, praying her would answer this early in the morning. On the third ring, she heard Wyatt's voice. His voice was annoyed and heavy with sleep. "Melinda, there had better be a demon after your ass" he said.

Melinda ignored this. "Wyatt, you're not sick, are you?"

"What? No. You sound awful though, are you?"

"Yeah, I've been feeling gross since we came back and last night I started coughing and running a fever, so mom and Aunt Phoebe went all mamma bird on me.

"Sorry little sis, but what do you want me to do about it? You know I can't heal sickness."

"I was just wondering. You don't think it's possible I caught something weird from 1890, do you?"

Wyatt hesitated, "I don't think so, Mel." Then with his best big brother authority "You're just being a hypochondriac. Stop worrying and get some sleep, kid…And Melinda, you better not say anything to mom because she'll skin us both alive. "

Melinda heard the top step let out a telling screech. "I won't. Gotta go." Melina snapped the phone shut and slid it in her pocket as she went out the door. It would be hard to explain to her mother why she had needed to talk to Wyatt this early. She was half-way back to her room when Piper turned the corner and spotted her.

"What are you doing?"

"Geeze mom, I had to pee. Am I allowed to do that?" Melinda said with a scathing look that was much less effective because she had to stop glaring to cough.

Piper narrowed her eyes. "Okay, fine, in the bed. Now."

Melinda rolled her eyes and stormed into her bedroom, slamming the door in Piper's face. She flung herself on the bed. Piper didn't follow her in immediately and Melinda knew her mom was composing herself. She also knew she deserved to be yelled at for the slamming the door; and that she was really overreacting because she was afraid this was some type of consequence for using a spell for personal gain and that her mom would find out what she had done…and because she would fall behind in the student body presidential elections for missing school. She felt bad for acting like a spoiled brat when Piper was just trying to take care of her, so she took a couple of seconds to swallow her anger. And when her mom came in after a couple of seconds, Melinda apologized. "I'm sorry, mom. I didn't mean to be so snappy and rude."

"Oh baby, it's okay. I know you hate missing school and I know you're not feeling good." She reached across the bed to test Melinda's forehead again. Instead of pulling away this time, Melinda reached up and took her mother's hand in her own as it brushed against her cheek, feeling the scars from potion brewing and dinner making, the beginning of wrinkles, and the ever so slight tingle of the power that Piper channeled through her hands.

When Melinda let go, Piper smiled down at her daughter. "You've still got a fever. Can you tell me honestly how you're feeling?"

Melinda sighed, but told her mother the truth. "I feel pretty awful. I haven't felt that great since Sunday night. I thought it was just a little cold, but now my whole body aches, and my head hurts, and my throat is really sore…" She coughed deeply. "And my chest hurts from coughing all night, I couldn't sleep. I went downstairs because I didn't want to wake you."

"You should have said something as soon as you started feeling bad. I'm your mom, it's my mom job to take care of you. I can't do that very well if you don't talk to me."

"I know. I'm sorry, mom."

"Okay baby. Here, take this." Piper slipped the thermometer under Melinda's tongue. "I'll be right back." Piper said, heading to bathroom for a damp washcloth. When she came back, Melinda had taken the thermometer out of her mouth and was looking at the the numbers with a disgusted look on her face. Piper took it from her and read, "102.5".

"Oh no, baby. That's no good. I know you must feel terrible."

Melinda shrugged.

Piper handed Melinda a cup of water and couple of Tylenols, and then a cup hot tea. Melinda took the cup, and took a sip of her mother's healing tea. The hot liquid and special herbs eased the pain in her throat. Piper crawled into the bed beside her and Melinda rested her aching head against her mother's chest—the contact eased the throbbing. When she had finished the tea, her coughing subsided and she knew she would be able to sleep better than she had all night. Piper took the cup and placed in on the bedside table and took the ponytails out of Melinda's hair and began run her fingers through it as Phoebe had done the night before. Piper rested her head against her daughter's, and soon both were asleep.

"Piper? Melinda?" Phoebe called. Piper opened her eyes. "In here, Pheebs"

Phoebe came in the room and looked at her sister and niece. "Is she okay?" Phoebe asked, concerned.

"She's pretty sick." Piper said. I gave her some medicine for the fever and headache and some hot tea for the sore throat and cough. I'm going to take her to the doctor tomorrow if she's not better." Piper rolled out of the bed and readjusted the comforter around Melinda's shoulders. "Let's go downstairs; hopefully she'll be out for a while."

Phoebe and Piper were watching reruns of Gilmore Girls when a very disheveled looking Melinda came down the stairs, coughing and rubbing her eyes sleepily. She looked from her mother on one couch to her Aunt on the other and back again before choosing her aunt to practically collapse of top of. Phoebe rubbed Melinda's back. "Are you feeling any better, sweetie?"

Melinda mumbled something incomprehensible into Phoebe's chest. Phoebe cast a worried glance over at Piper. "I'll take that as a no." Melinda drew back from her aunt and shook her head miserably, and then doubled over in a fit of coughing that wracked her body and robbed her of all breath.

"That's it," said Piper. "You're going to the doctor."

Melinda stopped coughing long enough to protest "No! I'm not going."

"Melinda! You sound terrible!."

"Can we wait until tomorrow, if I'm not better?" Melinda's eyes shone with tears. Please mom, it's not like I've been like this for days. Give me time to fight it myself."

Piper sighed. "Fine. But if you get any worse, you're going and if you're not better tomorrow, you're going.

"Okay"


End file.
